Costa Rica

Costa Rica was a short trip simply because, of all the countries in Central America, it is the most expensive. This is because it is beautiful, and also because, traditionally, it has been very safe, making it popular for tourists. Our plan was to spend a few days close to Manuel Antonio National Park, with the goal of seeing sloths for Jo’s birthday. It was a long trip from Granada, but definitely worth it.

For Jo’s birthday, we took two nights in the most gorgeous hotel built into the jungle, right on the edge of the park. Our hotel room wasn’t just a room - it was its own, stand-alone little bungalow. The hotel also had a gorgeous infinity pool backing into the jungle. At breakfast time, the smallest monkeys we’ve ever seen would curiously approach the restaurant, never getting very close unless someone unknowingly got up and left their food unattended.

We got up early the morning of Jo’s birthday to enter the park as soon as it opened. This would give us the best opportunity to see as much wildlife as possible. The park was stunning, with beautiful walking paths that wound through all the incredible, tropical flora. We saw so many animals: four different types of monkeys, a toucan, snakes, agoutis, beautiful tropical birds, bright orange and purple crabs, and iguanas. Unfortunately, the sloths were harder to spot. We overheard one of the guides saying that some days they are lower in the trees, but on this particular day they were all the way up in the top of the canopy, making them difficult to see. We were happy with all the animals and flowers we’d seen, but disappointed not to have gotten to really see the sloths.

We decided to walk back from the park instead of taking the bus, and this turned out to be the best decision we could have made. Just a couple of minutes before we reached our hotel, a man standing on the sidewalk asked us “hey - have you seen the sloths yet?”. I was responded saying no, not really, when he said “well, look up”. There, along side the road, in trees much lower than inside the park, there were two sloths! One two-toed sloth munching on leaves, and another three-toed sloth sleeping with her baby. We stood there for quite a while watching them and taking pictures and videos before continuing on to our destination: The cafe and butterfly conservatory next to our hotel.

After hanging out in the conservatory, where apparently the butterflies decided that Julie is a flower (they just kept landing on her - sometimes several at a time), Jo suggested we go back to where we saw the sloths to look at them some more. We headed back and sure enough, they were still there. As we watched them, another two-toed sloth appeared. We couldn’t believe our luck! They were close enough that we could clearly make out their faces and everything. After watching them some more, it started to rain, and the sloths curled up into little balls to keep the rain off of their faces. Birthday goal: Complete!

The next day we went to another hotel that was next to the pick-up location for the bus to take us to our next destination, Panama. The bus dropped us off about a 10-minute walk from the hotel, and of course, just as we got off of the bus, it started to absolutely pour rain. By the time we reached our hotel we were completely soaked. It was an early night for us as we were to be picked up from the same bus stop the next morning at 2am. It was a bit unnerving waiting for the bus that early in the morning at a seemingly random bus stop, but it was across the road from a hospital with night security, so we took comfort in that. The bus finally showed up at 2:30am and we were on our way.